How I Feel About YouTube’s Interaction Policy

YouTube first entered the Internet in 2005. It was originally meant for everyone to broadcast him or herself.

Over time, though, changes have been made. For example, from the 00’s up until the early 2010’s, YouTube seemed to be more relaxed with people using copyrighted music and images in their videos. But then they had to ban that.

Now the only time you can use something copyrighted is if you obtain written permission from the copyright holders and pay them royalties. Otherwise, you will get in trouble with YouTube.

This isn’t a big deal for me. However, the interaction policy beginning in 2020 annoys me more than ever: that is that they heavily restrict which videos can have comments.

YouTube did this because of a court trial they had involving minors in their videos. A lot of people wrote mean or even harmful comments. This prompted them to disable all comments on clips including anyone under 18, including those close to that age, like 16 or 17. Not only that, they removed all comments from videos geared for kids, INCLUDING the very polite and nice ones.

So, now if you upload a video on YouTube, you have to mark if it’s for kids or not for kids. If it’s for kids, you can’t have comments.

This. Is. Terrible! The company is making poor innocent uploaders suffer the consequences of other people’s wrongdoings. THAT IS NOT RIGHT!!!

If people are going to write mean comments on videos, that is their problems – NOT THE UPLOADERS!!!

Unfortunately, YouTube has removed and disabled comments from a video I made and uploaded when I was 22 – obviously NOT a minor. I even said my age in it, and I wasn’t lying. I know that I should never lie about my age online. And I was the only one in the clip.

I also said that I would appreciate it if people left comments below. I actually got a couple.

That was a milestone and a miracle at the same time, although the second comment came a bit later after the first. But the first was the miraculous milestone since I have never received comments on my past videos.

And those comments I got were very kind and polite. They certainly did not violate YouTube’s community guidelines. At least I still have records of them in my email, and I can always read them there.

Still. Everyone should have the right to enable comments, regardless of the audience. Without comments, it can be harder for serious videographers to build platforms or even enhance their skills.

While mean comments are not okay, I can’t imagine constructive feedback being against YouTube’s community guidelines. For example, if someone in a video talks quickly and somebody else points it out and suggests how they can sound clearer, that would help the people in that video improve.

People who want comments badly might look for other sites where they can have comments. However, those sites can be expensive and having to promote those videos themselves can be more costly.

If they post on sites like Facebook, they might get compliments since their friends won’t want to hurt their feelings. However, their friends might not necessarily be in their target audience.

So, if YouTube is so concerned about mean comments, which I have hardly ever seen in recent years due to messages reminding people to be respectful, then maybe they could consider a system where any comments submitted would pend for approval and only be published If it’s approved. It would also be great if they could restore the comments deleted from videos the company claims are for kids. After all, once something is online, it is forever, even if it’s inaccessible to the general public – but might still be available to the companies that founded the websites, especially if they are big.

Which brings me to my next point: YouTube is the number 1 platform for video marketing. It’s also the first website that people think of when they want to watch something, such as a clip from a movie.

Recently, I saw a screenshot of Ariel in a video with the “Part of Your World” number, with the year, 2005, as the date in the background. Beneath it was a silly comment, but not mean. I thought to myself, Ah, those good old days when people could have comments on their videos, regardless of the audience. I miss that. I wish it would come back.

I actually started a petition on Change(dot)org, requesting that YouTube reverses their interaction and commenting policy. You can go here to sign it if you wish.

I’ve also made a promise to myself that UNLESS YouTube goes back to allowing everyone to have comments on their videos, I will not upload anything.